Chapter 24
“Amira, my love, there are no words in any language to capture how much I love you. You’re my sun, moon, and stars. What the virus took from me pales in comparison to what it gave me. You brought light back into my darkened world.” – excerpt from a letter written to Amira Khalil by Donovan Shore
Briar
I knew announcing that the Tiders are coming to our camp wouldn’t go over well. I didn’t expect it to go this badly, though.
“You’ve lost your minds!” a man from the construction crew yells at me and Nova. “You both need to be locked up!”
My hand instinctively goes to the gun at my waist. Nova puts her palms out in a calming gesture.
“Don’t try that, Mick,” she says. “Not if you want to keep both hands attached.”
“What about our shield?” Stella asks. “It’ll kill them.”
“We’re taking it offline,” Nova answers.
A loud rumble of disapproval moves through the group gathered in the Hub for the announcement, which is everyone left in our camp. It’s still alarming to see how many we lost.
“We don’t have enough food,” a kitchen worker named Georgie says. “We already gave them half of everything and we just lost our whole garden to the volcano.”
I step in, not wanting Nova to bear all this alone. “I know. I get the reaction, you guys. I truly do. Their half of the supplies was destroyed by the volcano. Their entire camp. They lost a lot of people. They had more than a hundred and fifty children, and only seventeen survived.”
The murmurs soften.
“Can’t we help them, but be smart about it?” Georgie asks. “We could set up a camp for them somewhere outside our camp—so our shield can stay up—and bring them food and supplies.”
That gets a lot of nodding and mumbled agreement.
Nova sighs softly from beside me. Dad taught me and Mae to improvise, adapt, and overcome, and I use that mindset every day here.
I climb onto the table next to me and yell, “Everyone, listen!”
The talking quiets and they all focus on me, Nova included.
“Taking in the Tiders was my idea. And since it affects all of us, we’ll take a vote on it. Many of them have burns and blisters on their hands that keep them from being able to hunt or help each other. They lost everything. Without our help, they’re all going to die.”
“Then we’ll at least have peace!” someone says.
“If the vote is not to let them in,” I continue, “I’m staying with them to help.”
“What?” Chance balks. “You can’t leave. You’ll die with them.”
“My conscience won’t let me do nothing while seventeen innocent children die. Some of them are babies.”
“We can’t do this.” A fiftysomething man named Chuck is sitting at one of the back tables, and everyone turns to look at him.
Unease forms a rock in my stomach. Chuck is very well respected in our camp. He’s a quiet, hard worker who can fix just about anything mechanical that breaks.
“Marcus said he’d be back soon,” Chuck says. “Where is he?”
Nova answers. “We know as much as you do. He had to go to another island and he’ll be back as soon as possible.”
“I don’t like this. We’re already weaker from the volcano. We should wait for Marcus to get back and let him decide whether to invite the foxes into the henhouse.”
“Those kids might not live long enough for that,” Amira says, standing up. “If Briar leaves camp to help them, I’m going, too.”
Gratitude for her wells in my chest.
“I’ll go, too,” Wendell says. “I’ll help them however I can.”
Our camp dentist inhaled a lot of toxic ash from the volcano, and he’s barely even able to stay on his feet. It says a lot about him that he’s willing to help people he doesn’t even know in his condition.
“We can’t split our people up,” Niran says. “We still have lots of cleanup and rebuilding to do. Marcus would want us to stay together.”
“If they’re allowed into our camp, the Tiders will be required to help when they’re physically able,” I say. “They’ll have to follow the same rules we all do, and that includes earning their place here. We’ll have more help rebuilding.”
“From the people who want us all dead,” Chuck grumbles, shaking his head.
Nova steps up onto the table beside me, addressing the crowd. “If Briar goes to help them, I’m going, too. And I’m confident my wife will join me.”
“Damn right I will!” Ellison calls out from the back of the room.
I give Nova a grateful look, then face the crowd again.
“If we let them in, we won’t be able to turn off the aromium of the longtime Tiders.
The ones who have had it a long time are bonded.
They’ve been told that if anyone hurts one of our people or tries to take over our camp, we’ll turn the shield back on immediately. ”
“That’ll fry them,” Niran says, shocked.
I continue, yelling as loudly as I can to reach everyone in our large dining area.
“Soren Whitman doesn’t care about any of us.
He’s using all of us for his own purposes, and we’re all expendable to him.
Every one of us—even the kids. He’s evil, and he took nearly everything from me with his virus and experiments.
But I still have my humanity. I’ll never let him take that.
If we can show the Tiders grace, maybe all of us will finally realize that they were never our enemy.
Whitman just wants us to believe that so we forget who we should really be fighting. ”
Amira puts her hand on her heart, nodding in approval. The crowd’s murmurs have lost their angry edge.
“Let’s vote!” Nova says. “All in favor of helping the Tiders?”
She raises her own arm high in the air, and I do the same.
I’m not sure Marcus would agree with what I’m doing, but he didn’t leave us in charge to do what he would’ve done.
More than half the people on this island were killed by the volcano, and I can’t leave nearly a hundred more to suffer and die.
Around three-fourths of the people in the room raise their hands. I’m not going to die in the jungle trying to help the Tiders, which is a relief.
“Thank you,” I call out. “We need several volunteers to help with this.”
We don’t have enough manpower to clear the heavy layer of ash from all the plants in our massive camp garden.
Our priorities have been clearing the livestock’s grazing area so it can recover, and cleaning ash from buildings and the ground.
A team of ten moved all the bodies of our dead to the beach and burned them, the smell making several people vomit.
It’s dirty, endless work. We all have ashes and sweat smeared into a gray paste on our skin that makes us look like camouflaged soldiers fighting a war. The ash is getting into people’s eyes and making clean clothing impossible.
We lost one of our aboveground housing blocks to a roof collapse, and we have to clear out another one for the Tiders. All our people will sleep in the Sub, where we know they’ll be safe.
Ellison organizes volunteers to administer first aid in the Hub.
Olin offers to work with the caregivers of our camp’s children to set up a place where the Tider kids can all be cared for together.
Amira works with our chef, Vadim, to put together a quick, easy meal we can distribute to them as soon as they arrive.
“It’s time,” Nova says, our planning still underway.
The hour is up. We have to go get the Tiders. I’m tense with apprehension, still not sure this is the right call.
“I’m proud of you,” Ellison says from beside me, giving my hand a quick squeeze. “Your mom would be, too.”
Her mention of my mom makes tears flood my eyes. I can’t hold them back. I’ve never wished for my mom more. Just a hug from her would reignite something inside me that’s flickering and fighting to stay lit.
“I’m sorry,” Ellison says. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
I wipe my fingers over my cheeks, spreading around the film of sweaty ashes. “No, these are good tears, because I know you’re right. I needed to hear that.”
I know how to survive anything, but your mother knows why it’s worth surviving. That’s why we’re so good together.
My dad said that to me when we were picking out a new rosebush for my mom when I was twelve. He bought her dozens of rosebushes over the years because he said she was the beautiful, brightly-colored blooms and he was the thorns.
I take a deep breath and meet Nova’s gaze. “Okay. Let’s go.”